


now that i found you

by deoxyribonucleotide



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Humor, John’s banana ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), M/M, Meet-Ugly, Mild Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24717757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deoxyribonucleotide/pseuds/deoxyribonucleotide
Summary: “Why'd you leave your boy toy here, you dick?”“Went jogging,” Yuta says, hopping from one foot to another as he takes his running shoes off. “Did something happen?”Taeil's answering voice is incredulous and thin. “Can you believe it? He walked in on me showering thinking it was you!”“He did what?” splutters Yuta. He pauses, stock-still for a moment, before throwing his head back in raucous laughter.
Relationships: Moon Taeil & Nakamoto Yuta, Moon Taeil/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 5
Kudos: 158





	now that i found you

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this like ten days ago and only realized today that I could finish it in time for Taeil’s birthday. So I did. Happy birthday, Taeil!
> 
> Prompt 47 from this [list of college AU prompts](https://veronicabunchwrites.tumblr.com/post/181219836835/over-100-college-writing-prompts-for-your-college) is hilarious. I could not get the idea of it happening with johnil out of my mind. 
> 
> For some visual reference, here is how I imagine [Johnny](https://imgur.com/bHXmbZT) and [Taeil](https://imgur.com/cUuSz1i) would look like in this universe. Fic title is from this [Carly Rae Jepsen song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnGjfxJqf6I). Listen to her stuff—she’s amazing!

Maybe Taeil is foolish to have let his guard down after a year of rooming with Yuta, but he doesn’t expect anything out of the ordinary today.

Being Yuta’s roommate is terrifying sometimes—Taeil remembers the tarantulas in the living room, that week Yuta got interested in spider-keeping. The candles and the pentagram, too, from the time Yuta tried to summon a demon. Not to mention the times he’s caught Yuta casually desecrating shared spaces (read: fucking on every surface of their apartment). But Yuta is his best friend, and in the year that they’ve roomed together, he has grown used to these things happening around him.

Taeyong says a better word for his situation would be ‘inured’, but then again, Taeyong has always been the more eloquent out of them.

Still, though, Taeil feels like he deserves a day of peace. He’s in the shower now, singing along to a ballad while he shampoos his hair. Through the sounds of the water falling and his own voice, he hears the door open. He pays it no mind—it’s just another consequence of living with Yuta, who has the habit of leaving clothes hanging on the hook behind the door. He’s probably there on the other side of the bathroom curtain, retrieving his favorite pair of pants.

Taeil rinses his hair quickly, reaching for the conditioner bottle next.

“Hey baby,” croons a stranger’s voice from somewhere behind him. Taeil freezes. _Did someone fucking break in?_ “I can’t believe you forgot to invite me.”

“What the—” Taeil turns, raising the bottle in his hand like a knife.

His sentence turns into a scream as he locks eyes with Yuta’s latest lay. Fuck, he doesn’t even know this guy—so he looks down, avoiding the unfamiliar gaze, only for his eyes to land on a dick instead.

“Oh my god,” the guy yells, “you’re not Yuta!” 

“No shit, I’m not!” Taeil bats the man away with one hand while trying to save his dignity with the other. “Get the fuck out!”

“Sorry! I’m so fucking sorry,” the man wails, folding in on himself as he flees.

Once Taeil hears the door slam shut, he lowers his hand. Takes a deep breath to realign himself. And continues his shower.

_So much,_ he thinks, _for a day of peace._

He doesn’t leave the bathroom for a whole thirty minutes after that. It’s great that he didn’t get murdered in his own bathroom, but really? He had to look someone he didn’t know in the dick. And he’s pretty sure that guy saw his dick too. Taeil isn’t ashamed of his body or anything, but he is a rather private person. He’s not like Yuta, who laughs at Taeil’s stricken expression whenever he and his fuckbuddy get caught in a compromising situation. Locking the door just slipped Taeil’s mind, but now he’s certain that he’ll never make the same mistake again.

The guy isn’t in the living room when Taeil finishes his shower. Nor is he in Yuta’s room when Taeil cautiously peeks in. Paranoia makes him check his own room, but Yuta’s guy isn’t there, either. It’s a good thing that he’s already made his escape, because he would’ve gotten a _very_ stern talking to if he didn’t. And after that, maybe Taeil would’ve kicked his ass.

Yuta himself doesn’t come home until lunch. As he crosses the threshold to their apartment, Taeil asks, “Why’d you leave your boy toy here, you dick?”

“Went jogging,” Yuta says, hopping from one foot to another as he takes his running shoes off. “Did something happen?”

Taeil’s answering voice is incredulous and thin. “Can you believe it? He walked in on me showering thinking it was you!”

“He did _what?_ ” splutters Yuta. He pauses, stock-still for a moment, before throwing his head back in raucous laughter.

Taeil levels him an irritated look, but all it does is make Yuta laugh harder. He sighs. This is exactly the type of thing that Yuta would find funny; he doesn’t know what else he had been expecting.

After a minute, Yuta’s laughter peters out. “Fuck, I’m sorry,” he wheezes, trying to catch his breath. To add insult to injury, he sits across Taeil and starts stealing bites of his food. “I really am. But you have to admit, that shit’s hilarious.”

“It’s not,” grumbles Taeil, slapping Yuta’s hand away. He clutches his bowl protectively. “We were both naked.”

“Oh my, don’t tell me Johnny caught you in the middle of your morning SNSD dance routine,” Yuta crows, looking far too gleeful.

“Shut up. I was singing SHINee, actually,” Taeil says. He thinks sadly of _Symptoms,_ one of his favorite songs, now inextricably linked with the memory of seeing a random dude—Johnny, apparently—buck naked.

Yuta scoffs. “Ugh, men. Hyung, I told you this is a girl group household.”

“I listen to f(x), asshole,” replies Taeil, rolling his eyes.

“Sure, but anyway,” Yuta cuts in. He’s waggling his eyebrows as he asks, “Did you like what you saw?”

“I didn’t see anything,” says Taeil, trying not to think about Johnny’s dick.

“What a shame,” Yuta sighs. “You should’ve seen that thing between his legs, hyung. It damn near killed me last night.”

—

Taeil doesn’t date. To put it more accurately, he hasn’t had the energy to date for a long time. His sophomore year was, in a word, hell—instead of college getting easier as time passed, he found his confidence quickly waning once his subjects became more difficult. It took him some time to recover, and only now, in his second semester of junior year, does he feel like he’s truly bounced back.

Recovery was a road that left no room for distraction, and because of this, he had to count himself out of the dating pool. He couldn’t afford to date and then potentially get his heart broken; it would have been like shooting himself in the foot.

So his encounter with Johnny in the bathroom represents the first time that he’s seen a dick that isn’t his—or isn’t Yuta’s—in a year. In that time, Yuta has fucked around with ten guys (that he knows of), and Taeil has walked into him having sex at least thrice. He’s saying ‘at least’ here because he might have already scrubbed the more traumatic episodes from his memory.

The point is, Taeil doesn’t date. He’s had exactly one boyfriend in college, and that was in freshman year. All apologies to Taeyong, but their relationship was just not right for either of them at the time—but he’s gained Taeyong as a friend eventually, and Taeyong himself is in a happy relationship of his own.

So it surprises Taeil when, two days after the said encounter, Yuta asks, “Do you like Johnny?”

Taeil pauses from eating his cereal. That’s kind of a stupid question. “Do I like the man who walked in on me while I was showering? Maybe not.”

Yuta tries again. “Okay, but do you think you could like Johnny?”

“I don’t know him personally, Yuta,” Taeil says, “so I can’t form an opinion.”

“Would you like to get to know Johnny?”

Taeil puts his spoon down, eyeing Yuta evenly. “What’s your ploy here, Yuta?”

“I was just thinking,” Yuta starts. That’s a dangerous declaration coming from him, someone who normally doesn’t think at all. “You two would be cute together!”

Taeil is shocked into silence for a good few seconds. “What the hell, man. Aren’t you sleeping with him?”

Yuta shrugs. “Eh, it’s nothing serious. We both know that.” He gives Taeil a questioning look, as if he’s asking, _Do you?_

Taeil knows, of course. Yuta doesn’t date either, but he manifests this mindset in a manner different from Taeil’s own. Still, he doesn’t like where this is going. “I’m going to stop you right there,” he says, keeping his voice firm.

“Why?” whines Yuta.

“I’m just not comfortable dating a man you’ve slept with,” Taeil answers truthfully.

“You dated Taeyong!”

“Yeah, but that was three months after you slept with him, and I didn’t even know you at the time.” Also, Taeyong has never walked into a bathroom while Taeil was there, thinking that someone else was, but that’s beside the point.

“So what you’re telling me,” says Yuta, looking thoughtful, “is that you’ll date Johnny after three months.”

“Please just get me some coffee,” Taeil says, pinching the bridge of his nose.

—

Yuta bugs him after that. He whines and wheedles and prods Taeil into giving in, but Taeil has acquired over the years the ability to tune him out when it’s necessary. As such, Yuta’s pleas slide off him like water off a duck’s back.

Taeil doesn’t understand why Yuta seems hell-bent on getting him a date with Johnny, a man he knows nothing about and has no interest in. There’s the matter of his dick, as Yuta keeps reminding him, but that’s not enough. Taeil is not the sort of person who would date someone just because of their dick.

(But it is a factor in Johnny’s favor. Not that Taeil’s disclosing that particular bit of information to Yuta.)

A few days go by without Taeil seeing Johnny in the apartment even once. Yuta tells him that he and Johnny are trying to be friends—real, actual friends—so instead of fucking nightly, Yuta’s showing him around Seoul before the semester starts in full force. Taeil learns that just like Yuta, Johnny’s from overseas, having studied in the US for three years before moving back to South Korea at the request of his grandparents. But he doesn’t learn anything else aside from that.

Taeil thinks that the bathroom encounter is the last he’ll ever see Johnny, that he can lay to rest the specter who unceremoniously broke into his shower on a Sunday morning. Fate proves him wrong, though, because he sees Johnny again—this time in his Sociological Theory class.

Johnny gives him a cheery wave that Taeil is too stunned to reciprocate. Instead, he asks, “Why are _you_ here?”

Johnny smiles beatifically, looking for all the world like an innocent man, not one who had nearly given Taeil a heart attack one week prior. “Oh! I don’t think we’ve been introduced properly.” _No shit._ “I’m Johnny, and you are…?”

“Moon Taeil,” Taeil says, before gathering all his things and transferring to a seat that’s an appropriate distance away.

He’s is vaguely disturbed for the rest of class, and he almost misses Dr Shim’s cue for him to introduce himself. The rest of the day, however, proves busy enough to distract him. Wednesday is a slow drag. After Socio 172, the class he shares with Johnny, he has three more classes and the first meeting of choir for the semester.

When Taeil gets home, finding that Yuta has already made dinner, he feels an immense sense of relief.

The two of them are halfway through the shogayaki when Taeil thinks to ask, “Why didn’t you tell me Johnny was in the same major as me?”

Yuta barely misses a beat, answering, “Oh, he is?”

“Jesus,” breathes Taeil. “How come you don’t know?”

“Did you think we talked about our majors before fucking?” asks Yuta, wrinkling his nose.

Taeil flaps his hand about. “I don’t know. I think it would’ve come up even once. You two are hanging out now, aren’t you?”

“Nah, I hate talking about college,” says Yuta. He steals some pork from Taeil’s bowl, but Taeil steals it right back. “This is a learning experience for both of us, hyung. Today I learned that Johnny is majoring in Sociology just like you, and today you learned that two people can fuck without exchanging information about one another.”

Ah, blasé and amazing Yuta. In the past, Taeil had been envious of how Yuta lived his life, but he’s long since concluded that he could never be like him. “That sounds exhausting.”

“Hm, how so? It’s quicker like this, isn’t it?” asks Yuta. A wolfish grin spreads across his face. “Unless—”

“Unless what?”

Yuta slaps a hand down the table, looking like he’s won. “ _You_ want to sleep with Johnny.”

Yeah, Taeil could never be like him. Sighing, he says, “I don’t even know how you got that out of our conversation.”

“It’s a talent,” Yuta says with a wink.

—

Taeil has Socio 172 twice a week, and both times, Johnny is there. He’s sat in the first row, two seats away from its exact center, blocking everyone else’s view of the blackboard with his 6’0” ass. Taeil himself hides in the third row because the last thing he wants is for no-nonsense Dr Shim to eat him alive. But Johnny is in front and (nearly) center, because as Taeil learns over the next three weeks, he is exactly the type of person to sit there.

Everything about Johnny seems larger than life. He has a presence that makes itself known, not just because he’s so tall, but because he seems so… there. So present, lively, and immediate. When he had introduced himself, it was with a loud voice and a blinding grin. While most of the students are terrified into silence, Johnny participates in class, readily answering their professor’s questions. Johnny even engages Dr Shim in some lighthearted banter, almost as if he’s testing how much he can get away with. Every time he does, Dr Shim looks somewhere between shocked and amused. Taeil gets the feeling that most semesters, no one has the guts to do what Johnny is doing. Now that he’s needling their professor, the rest of the class is emboldened to speak up—and join in on the needling on the few days when Dr Shim seems to be in a pleasant mood.

But that’s not all that Taeil learns about Johnny. For one thing, he learns that Johnny is smart. When he’s not joking around in class, he can come up with insightful answers to Dr Shim’s difficult questions. He’s eloquent, too, easily finding the words to link concepts such as the rise of globalization and Gramsci’s theory of hegemony. And alright, Taeil can concede that Johnny’s jokes make him laugh on occasion. They aren’t his cup of tea—he likes puns and jokes that Yuta calls awful—but Johnny can be funny.

And even if Johnny causes Dr Shim headaches on some days, he is an interesting person to watch. Yes, just watch—Taeil doesn’t have any reason to seek him out. And because their seats are so far apart, Dr Shim has no reason to pair them up for discussions and exercises, either.

The only interaction between them happens when Johnny waves at him as he enters the room, prompting Taeil to smile and nod in his direction. Taeil doesn’t need to do any more than that, no matter how often Yuta tells him otherwise.

—

The arts department student council is doing a donation drive, so Taeil and Yuta clean out their closets on a Sunday. It takes them most of the morning to filter out the clothes they still want to wear from the ones that they don’t. Between them, they fill three boxes with different articles of clothing. The boxes, they leave in Yuta’s room; he’ll take them to the arts building on Monday, but for now, there’s not much else to be done.

They’re on Yuta’s bed—Taeil scrolling through Instagram, Yuta playing Pokémon on his Switch. It’s peaceful for all of ten minutes, but then Yuta decides to ask, “Do you want to get to know Johnny now?”

“What? No.” Taeil isn’t sure why they’re still talking about this. Surely Yuta has better things to do. “Why do you keep asking me like I’m going to change my mind?”

Yuta doesn’t even look up, saying, “Because you might change your mind.”

Taeil sighs. “We’ve been over this. I’m not going to date someone you’ve slept with.”

“Ha! You might as well consider every hot guy on campus off-limits.” Yuta’s Switch lets out a string of indecipherable noises and he groans, putting it down. “Don’t let that stop you from going out with Johnny. He’s a real stand-up guy. Besides, I haven’t even slept with anyone in a month.”

“Really?” Taeil thought Yuta was just being unusually considerate with the noise level.

“Yeah,” says Yuta, inspecting his nails. “I was getting kinda bored of the sleeping around thing.”

“Oh, okay,” says Taeil, nodding.

“And Johnny said he was, too,” Yuta adds, explaining that this common thread was the reason he and Johnny got close so quickly. They were pretty much birds of the same feather when it came to casual fucking, but now both of them are looking for something more.

“I thought you didn’t do that kind of talk,” Taeil points out.

Yuta snorts. “Yeah, with fuckbuddies. Johnny and I are actual friends now. He’s cool.”

“Okay.”

“Just ‘okay’? Isn’t this the part where you go ‘Wow! Yuta, welcome back into the light’, or something like that?”

“It’s not exactly business if you go sleeping around, is it?” says Taeil, shrugging. “Unless you do it in the living room. Then it’s kind of my business. This is a shared apartment.”

“But that’s where it’s most fun to do,” Yuta whines, shoving him lightly. “You’re boring, hyung.”

Taeil sighs again. He’s been doing that a lot, these days. “Yuta, I just don’t want to see a dick that isn’t mine.”

Yuta cackles. His tone is disbelieving as he asks, “You don’t?”

Silence. Yuta got him there. Taeil hasn’t had the time nor the energy to date before, but now that he’s doing better… he has to admit that dating—and fine, maybe seeing someone else’s dick—doesn’t sound too bad. “Okay, I may—”

“Great!” Before Taeil knows it, Yuta’s already pulled his own phone out. “I’ll tell Johnny.”

Taeil groans, but Yuta’s fingers are already tapping away on his phone screen.

—

Taeil doesn’t think anything of it until Friday, because Johnny approaches him as soon as they get dismissed. He’s _so_ tall, Taeil thinks, feeling just the slightest bit intimidated while Johnny watches him sort out his stuff. When Johnny speaks, though, his voice is mellow and soft. “Hi, Taeil. Yuta said you wanted to talk to me?”

Okay, back up, maybe he’s still not ready for this. “Ah. Not really?”

“Oh.” Johnny’s cheery expression falters just a little. He sits next to Taeil, and now that he’s seated, he doesn’t have to look down. Or, well, look down as much. “I’m _really_ fucking sorry about the—um, last month—”

“It’s cool, let’s not talk about it.” Taeil tries very hard not to think about what he saw in the shower, finding that Johnny sitting so close to him doesn’t help.

But Johnny is completely heedless of how Taeil’s mind has gone to the gutter. He only seems determined to make amends. “I want to make it up to you somehow. How about coffee?” His smile is bright and hopeful and just a bit charming.

“I have class after this,” Taeil replies. Johnny’s face falls rather piteously, so he’s struck with the need to explain himself. “No, I’m sorry. It’s Socio 130—Non-conformist Cultures—and I don’t want to skip it because it’s related to my thesis.”

“Oh, alright.” Johnny bites his lip, looking unsure, before saying, “How about dinner? Does tomorrow evening work fine?”

“I thought we were going for coffee,” Taeil comments lamely.

“I feel really bad,” Johnny insists.

Taeil gives it some thought. Here are the things he knows: A dinner feels a lot more serious than coffee. He hasn’t gone out with anyone in some time. Now that he’s doing better, he does want to try dating again. Yuta thinks that it would be good for him to go out with Johnny. But Johnny slept with Yuta a month ago.

What was it that Yuta said? _Don’t let that stop you from going out with Johnny. He’s a real stand-up guy._

“Alright,” Taeil says, making up his mind, “Saturday evening works fine.”

Johnny lights up once he agrees, tapping his feet like an excited child. “Awesome! It’s a date, then,” he says. Before Taeil can say anything else, he adds, “I’ll, uh, pick you up at seven? You can choose where to go.”

“Okay.” A date, huh? Taeil finds himself hoping that it isn’t just a turn of phrase. Standing up, he double-checks his backpack and desk. His next class is in ten minutes. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yep,” says Johnny, still grinning. “See you.”

—

Saturday evening, Yuta invites Taeyong over to help Taeil prepare for his date. Yuta gladly informs Taeil that it’s a _date_ date, which causes Taeyong to go off on how it’s their duty as his best friends to make sure that he looks his best. Equal parts helpless and touched, Taeil lets the two maneuver him through a bunch of outfit changes and twenty minutes of makeup.

By the end of it, Taeil looks… well, he still looks like himself. The makeup isn’t anything too heavy; it just makes him look like a bright-eyed, happy human rather than a zombified college student. But the clothes he has on, a cream turtleneck and a worn denim jacket, are different from what he regularly wears. He hopes he doesn’t come across as trying too hard. Or would Johnny appreciate the effort?

“Is this good?” Taeil asks, checking his watch. Fifteen minutes to seven. It’s a bit strange how nervous he is right now; he was plenty confident yesterday when he was saying yes.

“Hyung, you’re amazing. You’ll definitely knock ‘im out,” says Yuta, punching one fist into his other open palm.

“Yeah,” Taeyong says, his eyes wide and earnest. “I’m really happy for you, hyung.”

Somehow Taeil knows they’re not just talking about his OOTD. “Thanks, guys,” he says, feeling a bit lighter.

In no time at all, someone’s knocking at the door. Taeil is expecting Johnny as he opens it but when he looks up, he still gets shocked anyway. Johnny’s black hair is artfully tousled, and he’s in a white shirt and a leather jacket combination that has Taeil’s mouth going dry. “Oh, Johnny. Hi.”

“Hi,” says Johnny, and although he looks way too hot today, he smiles in exactly the same way. Bright and charming. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

From somewhere behind them, Yuta yells, “You two have fun!”

Taeil can only shake his head in fond resignation as they leave. Johnny’s car is parked on the other side of the street, and he opens the car door for Taeil before getting into the driver’s seat himself.

“So, where to?” says Johnny, pulling up KakaoMap on his phone and handing it to Taeil.

“Is pizza okay?” When Johnny nods, Taeil types in the name of an Italian restaurant he had eaten in with his friends before. There’s not much traffic on the road, even if it’s a Saturday night, so the ride to the restaurant isn’t too bad. Both of them are rather quiet, and when they do talk it’s on the topic of schoolwork. Taeil supposes that it’s not just him who’s feeling nervous.

_Trattoria Trussardi_ is exactly as Taeil remembers it: cozy and small and crowded. There’s an empty table, though, which they make a beeline towards before anyone else does. Once they’re seated, a waiter comes to take their order. Feeling hungry, they opt for a good amount of food: individual caprese salads, a 12” pizza quattro formaggi, and a plate of spaghetti bolognese for sharing.

“So tell me about yourself,” Johnny says, once the waiter’s gone.

“Uh. Let’s see… I’m Taeil, a junior sociology major.” Crap, Johnny already knows that. “I’m part of the university choir, I don’t have any siblings, but we do have two dogs at home. What about you?”

“I’m Johnny. I used to live in the US, but I moved here with my mom and dad last year. I’m currently auditioning for the university street dance crew. I don’t have any siblings either, but I do have lots of cousins. Um, we don’t have any dogs right now.”

“So.”

“Yeah.”

Taeil inspects a painting on the wall. Johnny fiddles with the zipper of his jacket. Neither of them says anything.

“We should not be this awkward; we already saw each other’s dicks for fuck’s sake,” Taeil blurts out.

Johnny’s eyes widen momentarily, but after a second, he relaxes. “Shit, you’re right. That was a pretty terrible first meeting, huh?”

Taeil snorts. When he says, “Tell me about it,” it makes Johnny smile, too.

The conversation comes easier after that. They’re still on the typical first date topics—favorite book, indoors or outdoors person, dream job—but at least the both of them a lot more relaxed. Johnny’s favorite book is Jack Kerouac’s _On the Road_ , and although Taeil’s English isn’t that great, Johnny promises to bring a copy of it the next time they meet. In return, Taeil would lend him a copy of his own favorite book, Han Gang’s _Human Acts_. Rather unsurprisingly, Johnny is an outdoors person, telling Taeil that he misses the national parks in the States. Taeil himself prefers to stay inside, but the way Johnny describes the North Cascades off Washington makes the outdoors sound captivating. They have different dream jobs: Taeil wants to pursue social research, Johnny wants to go into law. Funnily enough, they both wanted to be astronauts when they were younger.

A waiter drifts by to inform them their order would be delayed by fifteen or so minutes. Taeil doesn’t mind. It gives them more time to talk. They trade stories about their friends, and Taeil learns of Johnny’s own roommate/best friend, Ten. Based on Johnny’s account of him, Taeil feels like Ten and Yuta would either get along splendidly or end up killing each other. He tells Johnny this, and it makes Johnny guffaw for a good minute. Johnny asks about his zodiac signs, mentioning that he’d caught Ten’s investment in the sun, moon, and rising system. Taeil's friends have some interest in it as well, but he finds it hard to understand. All he knows is that he’s a Gemini born in 1994.

“Wait, 1994?” Johnny asks, tilting his head. “You’re older than me.”

“Oh, yeah,” says Taeil. He forgets to explain this to people he meets. “I was a sickly child. I got held back a year because of my asthma.”

“That explains why you’re in the same year as me. Should I call you ‘hyung’, then?” Johnny asks, one corner of his mouth twitching.

Normally, Taeil would insist, but with Johnny, it isn’t that big of a deal. “If you want to.”

“Okay, Taeil-hyung,” says Johnny, putting emphasis on the last word.

Their food arrives before Taeil has a chance to react. He watches, transfixed, as Johnny slices the pizza, sets the plates of caprese salad, and portions out some spaghetti onto Taeil’s plate.

“Let me do this for you,” Johnny says. “I wasn’t kidding about how sorry I was because of last month.”

Taeil waves him off. Looking back on it, it is pretty funny. “It’s fine, yeah? At least we got to meet. Oh, but you’re paying tonight, though,” he adds, chuckling.

“Definitely. I could pay for the next dates too, if you want,” Johnny declares, a glint in his eye.

“Confident, are we?” Taeil says, grinning. “I’ll hold you to that.”

Johnny gives him first pick off the pizza slices, and Taeil gets the cheesiest slice. The pizza is excellent, as are the caprese salad and spaghetti bolognese. Taeil thinks Johnny likes the food, too; as he eats, the look on his face spells satisfaction.

Now that they're eating, the conversation slows down somewhat. Taeil gets some time to think to himself. This is good. Better than expected, actually. Taeil had figured Johnny would be the same type of person he is in class: bold, loud, tactile. Fun to watch but draining to be around. But instead of that, he’s gotten Johnny like this: warm and sure of himself, but softer around the edges. Taeil’s not sure why Johnny’s different around him. Maybe he’s like this in intimate settings. Whatever the reason, though, he’s grateful all the same.

Not only does Johnny pay for the meal, he also leaves behind a generous tip. “I’m in a good mood, hyung,” he explains as they walk back to his car. The drive home is quieter; Taeil’s feeling a bit sleepy from the food. The silence, though, is calming, not awkward as it had been before.

Johnny even walks Taeil up to his unit. They’re at the door when Taeil says, “I had a lot of fun.”

“Me too,” replies Johnny. He looks unsure for the first time tonight: not saying anything, just watching Taeil’s mouth.

Ah. Taeil thinks he knows what’s up. He licks his lips, catching Johnny’s eyes tracking the movement. “You can kiss me if you want, Johnny.”

Johnny lets out a breath. He leans in, and Taeil, on his tiptoes, meets him halfway. Johnny’s lips are soft against his, and though the kiss starts out innocent, it heats up when Johnny pulls him closer by the waist.

Before it can get overwhelming, though, Taeil pulls away. Johnny whimpers.

“I’m sorry,” Taeil says, sounding sad even to his own ears. “Taeyong and Yuta are in the apartment, so we can’t do much more than this.”

“Oh, okay,” Johnny replies. “I thought you didn’t like my technique or something.”

Taeil has to laugh at that. “Don’t be silly; you were great.”

“Ah.” Johnny’s blushing. Cute. “Um. I’ll be going now, then.”

“Bye, Johnny,” Taeil says, coming up again for a brief kiss. “Be safe.”

He watches Johnny leave before letting himself into his apartment. He can’t quite stop the giddy little dance he does after he enters.

—

The next morning, Taeil follows the smell of garlic into the kitchen, where he finds Taeyong frying rice in a wok. As Taeil brews his morning cup of tea, Taeyong spots him and goes, “Ah! How did the date go, hyung?”

“Good morning to you, too,” answers Taeil, yawning.

“And good morning to both of you,” Yuta adds, having chosen this exact moment to walk in. “How was it? Did John’s banana do you good?”

“It’s too early for this, Yuta,” Taeil says, punching him in the arm.

“Ow,” he says.

“Set the table for us, will you?” Taeil says, sipping from his cup.

“So demanding,” Yuta says, but he gets plates and utensils anyway.

Once they’re seated, Taeyong says, “So, Taeil-hyung, you have to give us the deets! What’s Johnny like on a date? What did you talk about? Is he a good kisser?”

“Is this a game of twenty-one questions?” asks Taeil, laughing.

“Hyung!”

“Alright,” Taeil relents, smiling. It had been a good date—probably the best first date he’s ever had. A little storytelling is in order.

—

_A month later_

“I swear,” Johnny breathes against Taeil’s lips, “I didn’t think this would happen after we went out.”

“You didn’t? I did,” Taeil admits, sparing a moment to enjoy the shock on Johnny’s face—only a moment though, because he resumes the kiss after that.

There’s no time to waste. They’d gone on three dates already, three lovely and spectacular dates, and Johnny had been the perfect gentleman for each of them, but it’s truly been too long for Taeil and he’s never been that good at holding himself back from what he wants. So after tonight’s date, he’d pulled Johnny into the apartment and kissed him hard against the wall. Johnny, thank the heavens, got the message loud and clear.

Now here they are, Taeil in Johnny’s lap, both of them shirtless on the sofa and only shedding more clothes. There’s a tiny voice in Taeil’s head telling him to take this to the bedroom but doing that would mean delaying _this_ and if at all possible, he wants this right fucking now.

Johnny lifts Taeil by the waist, repositioning him, and like this, skin on skin, it’s almost overwhelming. His hands travel up to pinch and tease Taeil’s nipples as they kiss, causing Taeil to moan brokenly.

“You’re so fucking hot,” Johnny groans.

Taeil giggles, breathless and pleased. “ _I’m_ hot? Look at you.” He runs his hands over Johnny’s ridiculous abs—seriously, he could do laundry on these things—as he dives in to kiss him again. He rolls his hips, and despite the layers of cloth, the feeling of Johnny’s hard-on rubbing against his own sets his nerves alight. Taeil snakes a hand down between them, palming Johnny through his briefs.

“Fuck,” Johnny grits out, his hips canting forward on reflex.

Taeil frees Johnny’s dick soon enough and _ah,_ there it is, the stupid dick that had given him so much trouble. “You’re so big,” he sighs happily, giving Johnny an experimental tug.

“You can’t just say things like that,” Johnny says with a laugh, but it fades into a low moan as Taeil continues to stroke him off. “Shit, hyung,” he gasps, his forehead tipping forward.

The drag is a bit too dry, so Taeil spits in his palm. Johnny's eyes grow darker at that, and then flutter shut when Taeil wraps a hand around his cock again. And then, Johnny's kissing him again, open-mouthed and hungry. The world seems to narrow down to the points of contact between their bodies: his lips on Johnny’s lips, his hands in Johnny’s lap, Johnny’s tight grip around his hips.

The door opens. “Yah, hyung, if you— _what the fuck!_ ”

Taeil breaks away from Johnny’s lips, finding Yuta standing in the doorway, pale as a ghost. “What?”

“You know what, I’ll just go to Taeyong’s,” Yuta cries, voice pitched high, before fleeing.

Johnny and Taeil pause for a moment, looking at each other before bursting into peals of laughter.

“So that was something,” Johnny says, still stifling a laugh.

“I don’t get why he was so flustered,” Taeil huffs. “We weren’t even fucking yet.”

**Author's Note:**

> Raise your hand if you caught the Jojo reference in the fic lol
> 
> Also, look at this [compilation of Johnny being Taeil’s pocket boy](https://twitter.com/ekfxodlf/status/1229982799425224705) for an instant burst of dopamine
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
